


Never-Ending Suspicions

by Paint_It_Yellow



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS
Genre: Attempt at Humor, Gen, Light Angst, Post-Canon, Secret Santa 2019, between season 1 and 2 for VRAINS, but too bad for him he's also Super Fucking Paranoid, for gx, i think, more bullying of judai's lifestyle, since i never fully completed any season after the first, sometimes, yusaku is tired and just wants to move on with his life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-25
Updated: 2019-12-25
Packaged: 2021-02-26 20:07:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,010
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21954433
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Paint_It_Yellow/pseuds/Paint_It_Yellow
Summary: A stranger makes a habit of stopping by the Hot Dog van on all of Yusaku's shifts. Needless to say, he's a bit suspicious.
Relationships: Fujiki Yuusaku & Yuuki Juudai | Jaden Yuki
Comments: 5
Kudos: 50





	Never-Ending Suspicions

The first time Yusaku saw Judai he could tell there was something odd about him. Then again, anyone who laid eyes on him that day could tell- your average person didn’t saunter around smelling like they hadn’t showered in two weeks conversing with thin air whilst chasing a cat. In the end he never did catch said cat, instead running headfirst into Kusanagi’s van as though he hadn’t seen it in the first place. A strong first impression, he couldn’t deny, just not a good one. 

Honestly, as much as it struck him, Yusaku didn’t think he’d ever see the weird young man again and, as such, didn’t think too much of the incident afterwards- especially with the VRAINS Incident soon taking hold. Except he did. 

“Oh? Your school allows you you work part-time jobs?” his curious voice piped up while Yusaku had been busy tending to the hot dogs as was in the implied job description. 

“Do you want a hot dog?” Yusaku replied, somewhat irritably. If he wasn’t here to get something he at least had an excuse to tell him to leave. He didn’t want to spend his time talking to the same guy who’d somehow managed to dent the truck with his skull. Or talking at all really, but the point was the same. 

He hummed then rolled on the balls of his feet before glancing around him then down.

“What do you think?” He asked, and it took a moment for Yusaku to realise he wasn’t talking to him. The boy hummed again before bending down, coming back up with the plump cat from memory dangling in his arms. 

“We’ll take it!” Something about the way he said it made Yusaku want to say something snippy but he left it at a side gaze as he made up the hot dog, handing it over and hoping he’d go away. 

He did not, in fact, go away. 

He took a seat and started eating, occasionally talking to himself with the odd question lobbed over Yusaku’s way which was only met with an acquiesced grunt. This, for some reason, became routine for four consecutive days while he was the only one on staff until he finally just relented to the new background noise. 

“You know,” he started one day, receiving a grunt, “I’ve just been told something.”

Yusaku spared him a glance which was quickly latched onto.

“We haven’t told each other our names! How am I supposed to tell my friends about you if I don’t know your name? Can’t keep calling you the Hot Dog Boy, can I?” 

Yusaku finally looked up fully at the man who was sitting hunched over a laptop, grinning like an idiot and still looking like he hadn’t showered in a good while (though, considering Yusaku couldn’t actually smell him he assumed that he’d showered in at least the past week which was… passable, at best). Did he really want to share his name with this man? This man, who had shown up one day out of nowhere and practically set up shop at the van? Who talked to thin air? 

“I’ll go first, in case you’re feeling shy over there. You can call me Judai!” Judai said with a blinding smile. 

First names? It would be rude not to respond in kind, and they looked around the same age but… “Fujiki,” he ended up grunting out. 

“Aw, here I thought we were buddies. Best of pals.”

“No thanks.”

“You’re so harsh, Fujiki. It really hurts my feelings.”

“As long as it doesn’t hurt the business.”

“‘Course not! Wouldn’t stop coming here for the world, best hot dogs in Den City!” 

Yusaku was skeptical at that one but he wasn’t going to debate it. For one he didn’t know enough about any rivalling businesses and for two he just simply couldn’t care less. 

“You’re right about that one!” Another voice mingled into the rest, though familiar. “I thought you seemed familiar; you were at the hospital yesterday, right? Getting yelled at by someone, if I recall.” 

Kusanagi, never a saviour it seemed, joined the fray, thus only making Judai stay longer. Though it did bring to question what for, Yusaku could solemnly swear that Judai had been at the hot dog van all of his shift and hadn’t seemed the least bit ill or injured.

Judai looked a bit sheepish after being called out, rubbing the back of his head with a loose grin, head bowing slightly. 

“Ah, yeah. My friends don’t take it lightly on me when I get too caught up in my work.”

Maybe he was older that Yusaku had first guessed if he had work that would result in him going to hospital.

“What, did they beat you up?” Kusanagi clearly meant it as a joke but Judai didn’t get the message. 

“Well, something like that actually. They’re a bunch of bullies. Sent me straight to the hospital.” 

Kusanagi stammered silently for a moment. “Well, at least now you’ll know to pace yourself,” he finally landed on saying. 

“Yeah, I think they’ve got a bet on how long ‘til next time.”

Yusaku and Kusanagi shared a look while Judai seemed blissfully unaware. To be honest, everything said in the last five minutes by him had been slightly concerning. Yusaku may find his presence annoying but he wasn’t cruel enough to be able to simply overlook what was just said. 

“This happens that regularly?” Kusanagi asked, slightly alarmed. 

Judai shrugged with a faint smile that somehow seemed less genuine than his many others. “It is what it is. It’s an important job after all, this one’s a bit different from usual too.”

“Who do you work for?” 

“Oh, well. That’s hard to answer- myself, I suppose? Not really, but it’s much more believable than reality.”

“Reality can be strange.” Kusanagi nodded and, secretly, Yusaku had to agree. 

“Sure can,” Judai said… sadly? It was the first display of something other than joy that Yusaku had heard come from the man and he had to admit, it was odd and very unfitting. 

“Guess that’s my cue to leave,” he sighed, getting up from his place. “Glad to finally get your name, Fujiki!” 

Kusanagi watched as the man disappeared from sight before turning on Yusaku. 

“So this is the kid you’ve been complaining about this entire week?” 

Yusaku nodded. 

“Well, he doesn’t seem bad, but I can see where your suspicions come from. It’s nice of him though to stop by and chat to you, you could always stand to have other people in your life.”

He frowned. That wasn’t what he wanted to be told. If anything, he wanted to be told that his suspicions were founded and that the van should move and refuse to serve the boy until further notice. Something about him was off- okay, a lot about him was off, and Yusaku didn’t really want someone weird coming into his life again right after it had started to settle down. 

Maybe it was his half-hearted wish that evening that brought him the exact opposite the next day when Aoi appeared at the van with a familiar, annoying face. After the VRAINS incident she’d sometimes come by, what for he didn’t know but he assumed it was her wanting to give back to him for saving her. Not that he asked for it but business was business and all.

He levelled a hard gaze at him, trying to figure why he was with her- a relative? Their hair and eyes were the same colour, but they also just so happened to have very common hair and eye colours so that wasn’t much to go off of. Other than that, they looked nothing alike. 

“Fujiki! Did you miss me?” Judai asked, waving enthusiastically with a distinct lack of cat around him. Aoi glanced between them, confused, but didn’t say anything. 

Yusaku didn’t even sigh this time. He wasn’t paid enough. He wasn’t paid anything, actually. “No, what do you want?” 

“Oof,” Judai winced, clutching at his heart. Both Aoi and Yusaku seemed unimpressed. “Just two hot dogs, stuff to do, places to be today, unfortunately.”

“Great.” And he meant it, genuinely. 

“Hey, what’s that meant to mean? I thought we were friends!” 

If Yusaku didn’t know any better he’d think Aoi  _ giggled. _ When he looked over, though, her hand was covering her mouth and her eyes were directed elsewhere. 

“This isn’t funny!” he moaned at her. 

“Sorry for being so blunt, but I don’t think Fujiki has any friends.”

Was Yusaku supposed to take that as an attack on his character? Well, it wasn’t like he could deny it. 

“You know each other?” Judai perked up at the idea, seeming to forget all about the issue of Yusaku’s apparent lack of friends. Aoi looked a bit affronted by the sudden change but Yusaku wasn’t about to help her out after she dug her own hole. 

“I- Well, we go to the same school. He’s in the duelling club.”

Judai spun, turning to Yusaku with renewed energy. “You duel? Me too, I’m liking you more and more! We should duel sometime when you’re not working.”

“Or when you’re not,” Aoi seemed to remind Judai, “if you’re not careful you won’t get to eat the hot dog you ordered at this rate.”

“Shoot, you’re right. Raincheck our duel, Fujiki. Once work is finished though for sure!”

Fujiki glanced at Aoi, looking for answers to the questions she just raised, though also silently cursing her for bringing up the duel club. If Judai ever thought he’d duel him he was going to be sorely mistaken once again and Yusaku wasn’t sure if he wanted a mopey Judai hanging around. His duelling days were over. 

“He was hired by someone with a share in SOL to look at something,” she shrugged. “I don’t know the details, but for some reason he latched on to me.”

Everything about that rubbed Yusaku the wrong way but he only nodded instead of saying anything, eventually handing over their hot dogs in hopes they’d leave which, thankfully, they did. 

The rest of that day was a bit of a blur, his mind laden with the information that the work that Judai often sat and worked on by the van was for SOL. He also had an interest in duelling and had made a distinct effort to hang out with Aoi. You know, Blue Angel. You could forgive him for being a bit paranoid but that didn’t seem like it could be anything good. Maybe Judai was more dangerous than he thought. 

“I suppose it couldn’t hurt,” was all Kusanagi said when he proposed looking into Judai more, though he did look rather concerned. 

That was how Yusaku found himself up at two in the morning scrolling through databases for information on Judai, made much harder by the fact that he hadn’t given a surname- he could even be using a fake name for all Yusaku knew. 

Eventually though, some information did crop up. Not any that would dispel his suspicions though. Pretty much all of the files were odd in some way, shape or form. His very early life was normal enough, then there were documentations of violence surrounding him but never inflicted by him directly, he won some competition held by Kaiba-Corp and then soon after that there were various medical records that Yusaku truthfully couldn’t quite understand. There were even records reporting a claim to see what wasn’t there, cured by this surgery- clearly not, thought Yusaku. The boy still speaks to himself. 

From there it was fairly normal. Further medical records were shots and check ups at the GP, school records were relatively normal if slightly below average. That is, until essentially all the records held by his high school cropped up- Duel Academia. 

An elite school for dueling. Guess Yusaku underestimated how much Judai liked duelling after saying so the previous day. Getting his hands on Judai’s school reports were nothing short of hard as shit, even harder than it was other students in the academy- he tried. First year was the most normal; he got into a lot of mischief, got into trouble, got high duelling acclaim but low written scores.

In his second year he caught the attention of acclaimed pro duelist Edo Phoenix, then soon after, according to the school reports he could find, went missing for a good few days before returning without harm. The second half of his second year seemed in line with the strangeness that much of his second year held in that it lacked detail for much. All of a sudden the mischief was gone and the reports got less and less, more generic than ever. If they seemed lacking at all in information, they were nothing on his third year. 

Yusaku remembered hearing about it. It wasn’t the forefront of his mind for a few easily guessable reasons, but even he can’t just avoid a news report of an entire huge school full of pupils going missing as if into a blackhole. He was also sure that the entire school made it back in one piece, so it was curious then that he found various statements mentioning how he and a few other students had gone missing shortly thereafter only to return once again halfway through the school year where Judai underwent a series of absences before finally graduating. 

Yusaku leaned back in his chair trying to comprehend what he’d gathered. Not only was Judai suspicious now but he was also potentially dangerous. Great, just what he wanted. How should he approach this? There was also information in the files to indicate that he had friends that were pretty influential despite what his appearance would indicate so he couldn’t really threaten anything- not that that was his style. He groaned and buried his face in his hands. Fuck it, he’d figure it out in the morning. 

Or, he thought he would. Except he didn’t really get the chance to seeing as he was stopped on his way to the van that day by just the man he was hoping not to see- more so than usual. 

“Just who I was looking for!” Judai’s bubbly voice put a damper on his already dour mood. 

“I’d rather not talk to you right now,” Yusaku managed to grunt out, walking around Judai while said man just took it in stride and started following. 

“I thought you wanted to know more about me,” Judai said with a smirk and Yusaku caught his eye in a way he really didn’t like. Not in a personal way but in an ‘I’m in danger’ way. 

“... Not really.”

Judai sighed, stuffing his hands in his pockets. “You know, I get that I’m a weird guy but you can ask me questions instead of spending your night looking up my records.”

Well, shit. What now? Was he going to be brutally murdered? Cause sure he could duel but martial arts… not his strong suit.

“Before you get too alarmed, yes I’m aware saying that out of nowhere is creepy and no I’m not annoyed or anything along the lines. Some others are but I can keep them in check.”

Yusaku looked at him, trying to gauge if he was being serious and, for once, it seemed so. 

“Then I do have questions.”

“Then let’s find a place to sit and you can shoot.”

They made their way to a park bench in a silence that was, to Yusaku at the very least, suffocating. 

“Why are you in Den City if you’re from the Domino area?” Surely whatever was going on at SOL that he was looking into could have been looked at by someone from the area?

“It’s my job assigned by the universe, you could say, to travel. Usually to places with a high-density of duels. I came here because of the VRAINS Incident. I’m sure you’re aware of it.”

There it was again, a knowing look that Yusaku very much did not like. 

“It’s hard not to.” 

“As Aoi mentioned, one of my friends has people at SOL so I came to investigate to see if my target was involved. Thankfully, they weren’t. And the day was saved without me needing to intervene.” 

It was an odd way to talk about it, Yusaku thought. He had a target. 

“Why are you still here then? If your target is still out there.”

“Oh, Yusaku,” Judai said with a slow, sad lilt to his voice while he flinched at the use of his first name, “my work will never be done. My target may never die in this lifetime. Then I will come back again, maybe ten years from my death, maybe a thousand. A never-ending battle, that’s what it is.”

There were a lot of things, suddenly, bubbling up into his mind, but somehow the first one out of his mouth was, “You know my first name.”

Judai laughed, breaking from the sadness he had driven the conversation into. It was a smooth melodic sort unlike his usual laugh, but genuine enough. “I know a lot of stuff.”

“You researched me?” He was strange and enigmatic enough- did he know?

“No, no. I’m pulling your leg a little this and that way. I asked Aoi. She was involved in the VRAINS Incident, you know. I was wondering if my target lingered with her but she’s better than ever.”

Yusaku wasn’t sure why, then, Judai would spill all this to him if he didn’t know his alter ego or why, even, Judai was so insistent on becoming friends with him. Of course, he realised Judai could simply just be a guy who liked making friends, but there were more likely acquaintances elsewhere than a hot dog van. 

“Who is your target exactly, if they can attach to people and get away just as quick?” 

“The Light of Destruction. Blinding, overwhelming. If you ever ran into it you’d probably know only if you really kept your guard up- or had good friends like I do to watch my back.”

Yusaku’s guard was always up, so he assumed he’d be alright. Assuming Judai was telling the truth. 

“This is such a bummer of a conversation, I’m no fun to talk about,” Yusaku disagreed, as of now Judai was a very fun topic. “I stop by the van to talk to you, so let’s do that instead!” 

“Why?” 

“Why what?” 

“Why do you stop by the van to talk to me?”

“‘Cause I want to know more about you, silly!” 

Despite his wishes, he could feel his face flush slightly. This day had taken a turn he had not expected it to go. 

“I… see.” He didn’t, actually. 

“So, is that Yusaku speak for ‘yes, go ahead and ask as many questions as you like’?” 

“Not in so many words, I suppose,” Yusaku ended up saying after a bout of deliberation. He could probably take control of the situation if the questions got too uncomfortable. 

“Great! Simple start, how old are you?” 

“Sixteen,” he replied. He could do this. 

“Sweet! You’re only one year younger than me, though I suppose you knew that. You seem so much smarter than I was at your age though. Bet you do really well in classes.”

Somehow, hearing that Judai was only a year older was a bit startling even though, as pointed out, he did know so already. He didn’t quite seem the kind of guy who could be older than him but he also somehow never seemed to feel younger, he almost felt ageless. Ethereal, in a weird way. 

“Not really,” Yusaku found himself saying, “I do what I can to not bring attention to myself.”

“How mysterious of you,” Judai teased while Yusaku rolled his eyes. “Mr Mysterious got a favourite class even if he won’t let himself excel?”

“... Computing,” he begrudgingly admitted, somehow predicting the huge grin that split across Judai’s face. Somehow, the relaxed atmosphere made Yusaku’s face flush more than it already had. Hopefully it just looked like the heat getting to him more than anything because he sure as hell didn’t get what was going on. 

“Of course!” Judai announced, clapping his hands. “I should’ve guessed that. Mysterious Hacker Man, so much talent in one body.”

“It’s a good use of the brain,” Yusaku shrugged, feeling as though he needed to justify himself for his liking of computing. 

“That’ll be why I’m no good at it, I’ve been told many a time I don’t have a brain and on the occasions I do, it’s only for duelling.”

“You really like it that much?” He couldn’t help the distaste in his voice. He understood others loved it, but he still knew he’d never get the enjoyment he once did out of it. 

“Oh, yeah! Some people think going to a high school solely for it would tire you out but honestly it took me on a whole adventure. Can’t say much for the adventure itself, but I’m glad I got to take my duelling to places I’d never have got to go. Aoi said you were in the duel club, was she wrong?” 

“Well, no.”

“You sound like you’re not a fan of duelling though which, correct me if I’m wrong, sounds like the opposite mindset you should have for a club about it.”

“I was forced into it. And it was useful at the time. Doesn’t mean I can bring myself to enjoy it.”

Judai opened his mouth, then closed it again, glancing at the air beside him before nodding with an accompanied sigh and turning back to Yusaku. 

“I get it,” he said, which was honestly not what Yusaku expected to hear considering everything. “There was a time when I was like that too.”

“Really?” 

“Yeah. Everything was painful then. I thought that it’d do more harm than good if I duelled, so I stopped. Even after I picked it up again it took me a while to actually enjoy it again, like picking up the pieces to a jigsaw puzzle that you dropped into a forest. I’d say that even now I don’t quite have what I used to. It’s better than nothing though. Growth. You’ll get there someday.”

“What makes you think I want to keep duelling?” 

“You let yourself get involved. That itself is enough to show even the slightest spark. You don’t need to duel for fun, I suppose. But once you can get back to doing that, that’s how you know you’re getting back on the right track.”

Huh. Well, he had to admit, that wasn’t one he’d heard before. Or thought of before. Maybe all it took was an individual who’d been through something. He was loathe to assume that Judai’s ordeal was anything on the scale that Yusaku’s was, but no one’s would be. But it sounded similar enough, painful enough to one such as Judai, that it struck home all the same. 

“So you’re saying that one day I could enjoy duelling again,” Yusaku asked, looking straight at Judai. 

“Sure! It’s an emotion, a feeling, a sensation! Not something that appears and then it’s gone forever. You don’t get one chance at happiness.”

Leaning back in the park bench, Yusaku glanced at the few people wandering in front. Enjoy duelling again, huh? If you’d asked him a few months ago, before the VRAINS Incident, before the Knights of Hanoi, before Ai, maybe he’d have thought you were joking, but something about the way Judai put it, something about the timing. It was all right. It was all there. Never before had he felt less burdened by his past, even if it was still a huge weight on his mind and probably always would be. 

“It can be hard to do alone though,” Judai said suddenly and Yusaku turned his attention back to his companion. “Since you’re liable to fall.”

Was he about to say what he thought he was going to?

“Then I look forward to you picking me back up.”   
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Uh. Uh. Happy McChristmas. @my secret santa i'm sorry this ended up not being exactly what you asked for but i got a nosebleed doing it if that makes up for it? i fell ill while trying to write it so most of it ended up being written in a rush last night and i ended up writing myself into a corner, but i hope you enjoy anyway! the worst part about it wasn't that i spent ages with no clue what to write, but right up at the end when i had to convert everything from my google doc to this and delete all the spaces. i really enjoyed writing the interactions between yusaku and judai nonetheless, i might even do it again. 
> 
> don't ask how the timeline directly works, all i know is that it takes place maybe a few months-half a year after judai graduates and sometime between season one and two. 
> 
> find me on tumblr at [future-circuit!](http://future-circuit.tumblr.com/)


End file.
